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Latest News |
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The NBA owners today gave Clay Bennett permission to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City today but only for this upcoming season and only if they can get the city to settle the lawsuit.
The Mayor held a press conference today and made it clear that no cash settlement would be considered and that the city will take all action required to hold the team to the lease.
It is now time for David Stern to put his bruised ego and hurt feelings aside and step up and show some leadership by negotiating a deal that gets OKC an NBA team so the Sonics can remain in Seattle.
Both sides have proven they can thump their chests enough to show they will ride this all the way out. Now it is time for them to show they are intelligent enough to know when it is time to negotiate.
Without that kind of leadership the league, and Bennett, will be faced with years of legal battles and P.R. and financial nightmares.
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E-mails obtained by lawyers for the city of Seattle show Sonics owners were talking enthusiastically last April about moving the franchise to Oklahoma City — despite telling the public and the NBA they were still interested in keeping the team here.
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OLYMPIA -- Seattle's attempt to secure a tax package for KeyArena wasn't the wild, last-second shot at keeping the Sonics that leading lawmakers made it out to be, according to e-mails obtained through a public disclosure request.
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Because of the continuing rhetoric from state representatives that "our calls run 10-1 against" SOS filed a public discloure request to determine the actual numbers.
As expected the truth was other then the claims:
Call volume: 3808 - Calls in favor: 2891 - Calls against: 117 - 97% in favor. Calls to the legislative hotline were just as overwhelming in support. It is clear we can forever put to bed the misinformation that "no one is in favor of this".
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OKLAHOMA CITY — "Free Lunch," by David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, documents "how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense (and stick you with the bill)."
That's why Oklahoma City residents recently experienced a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to the superrich owners of the Seattle SuperSonics. A ballot measure that passed March 4 will raise $121 million in sales taxes to "fancy up" a practically new building in town with luxury skyboxes, rooftop gardens and more, in an attempt to lure the Sonics to Oklahoma City.
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Developer Griffin offers to fund half of $300 million makeover of Key Arena
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The city of Seattle last week rejected a $26.5 million offer from the Sonics' ownership group to buy out the last two years of the KeyArena lease, continuing the ongoing battle over the NBA franchise.
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Like children slowly pacing in a game of musical chairs, Seattle, New Orleans and Oklahoma City are anxiously circling around the Sonics and Hornets franchises.
Once the music to stops, a mad scramble is certain to begin.
"There's three cities, two teams, and when this is all said and done, somebody is going to be left without," said Steven Pyeatt, co-founder of grass-roots group Save Our Sonics. "That's just the reality."
Despite significant economic shortcomings, each city is taking steps to secure one of the NBA teams for many years.
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Monday, October 1, 2007 a complaint was filed in King County Superior Court against the Professional Basketball Club, LLC. The complaint alleges misleading advertising, Consumer Protection Act Violation, and other deceptive actions by the Oklahoma-based Sonics onwership as part of the team's 2007 marketing campaign.
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At the request of the "A Deal is a Deal Committe", on Monday September 10th, the Seattle City Council by unanimous vote adopted an ordinance crafted after I-93 that will prevent the city from accepting an early termination offer from Clay Bennett on the Sonics use of Key Arena. Coupled with the Specific Performance Clause in the Key Arena use agreement the ordinance sets the intent, and legal footing, for the city in stone binding the Sonics to play in Key Arena through 2010.
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Thank you Ryan Parker! |
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Save Our Sonics and Storm |
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Save Our Sonics and Storm was formed as a grassroots effort to show that the people of the Pacific Northwest are passionate about the things that make this region great. Professional basketball, like Baseball and Football, are parts of the fabric that make for a diverse community. |
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We are here to unite those interested in keeping the team in the area and work with elected officials to motivate them to work out a solution that can keep the team here.
To succeed we will need the support of thousands of people who will join the cause. Please sign up for the "Action Alerts" at the top of the page and you will be updated when you can help with emails, phone calls, or attending events.
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The response has been overwhelming, thank you to everyone who is signing up to help and donating to the cause.
If you are willing to invest a few hours a week into saving our Sonics and Storm, please drop us an email at volunteers at saveoursonics dot org
If you can’t spare the time we could always use a donation. The money will go to good use and only towards hard costs for things we can’t barter or borrow. We are a true grassroots group just in it for the satisfaction of knowing they helped keep the team here. Surplus funds (if any) will be donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs in King County. J
For more information on the group, or how to become involved in the groups leadership, please contact us via email at: info at SaveOurSonics dot org |
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Interesting articles |
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It'd be the little guy who is hurt by Sonics' departure - Sunday, February 17, 2008
By Jerry Brewer - Seattle Times staff columnist
In a near-empty bar, Bob Wolf lifts a beer to his lips and tastes the good life.
"Time goes fast when you're having fun," he says.
This is how his workday starts, almost always. Wolf is so consistent you could use him to tell time. Hours before every Sonics home game, he visits Floyd's Place, jokes with the workers, drinks one Miller Genuine Draft, lets it settle and walks across the street to KeyArena, enthused over another night of meeting people.
Wolf collects tickets at the arena, and he does it with unceasing magnetism — handshakes, hugs and hilarity all night long. He is 72, with asbestos festering in his lungs, but he could pass for 55. Since 1967, back when the Sonics franchise had a pacifier, he has worked in their arena.
read more...
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Financing Sonics' move would tarnish OKC's image
By Berry Tramel - Oklahoman Staff Writer - Eighteen months ago, George Shinn told me he planned to keep his NBA Hornets in Oklahoma City and negotiate his way out of the New Orleans lease. Go to court, if he had to. And if need be, Shinn said, he would ask Oklahoma City — elected officials, business leaders, presumably anyone who lives or works in OKC, you, me — to pay his way free. Shinn eventually changed his mind. Decided the right thing to do was go back to the Big Easy and give it the old pro try.
But Shinn's plan was resurrected last weekend with a different owner and a different franchise, according to the Tacoma News-Tribune, which reported that Seattle SuperSonics chairman Clayton Bennett told employees Oklahoma City is willing to pay the freight, quite literally, to bring the NBA franchise here.
read more...
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A local hoop hero's plea to keep the team here
Seattle Times Guest Column by Detlef Shrempf
This past week, I was able to read up on most of the material in the newspapers in regards to the future of the Sonics. The discussion has been long-running and I would like to express my opinion and personal feelings, not as a current member of the Sonics staff, but as a committed and active member of this community. I was deeply saddened by what I read and I was almost resigned to the fact that we might actually lose the team.
read more...
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We all lose out if we lose the NBA
Excerpts from an article by Steve Kelley, Seattle Times staff columnist
But we all know how close we are to losing the Sonics.
We know how close to losing 40 years of memories we are. Forty years of families going to games, 40 years of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Havlicek and Walt Frazier, Julius Erving and Bill Walton coming to town. Forty years of watching Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Karl Malone, John Stockton and Isiah Thomas.
We are this close to losing that. Unless the state legislature agrees to contribute $300 million to help fund a new multi-purpose arena, the NBA will be gone.
It's that simple. And it's that sad. Something has to be done.
read more...
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Key Arena Lease |
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AFTER CAREFUL REVIEW OF THE LEASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN SUPERSONICS AND THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THERE IS A CLEAR AND UNAMBIGUOUS PROVISION PROVIDING EITHER PARTY MAY SPECIFICALLY ENFORCE THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE OTHER PARTY.
PAGE 59 PARAGRAPH L OF THE LEASE STATES: ENFORCEMENT OF THIS AGREEMENT: THE OBLIGATIONS OF PARTIES TO THIS AGREEMENT ARE UNIQUE IN NATURE; THIS AGREEMENT MAY BE SPECIFICALLY ENFORCED BY EITHER PARTY.
SAVE OUR SONICS AND STORM LEGAL ADVISORS PAUL SCHNEIDERMAN AND AARON WOLFF PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT: "A SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE CLAUSE IS A CONTRACTUAL DUTY REQUIRING THE PARTIES TO SPECIFICALLY PERFORM THE DUTIES AND TERMS OF THE CONTRACT. IN THIS MATTER SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE COULD REQUIRE THE TEAM TO PLAY ALL REGULARLY SCHEDULED GAMES AT THE KEY ARENA THROUGH THE 2010 SEASON."
IN AN INITIAL MEETING WITH SEATTLE CITY ATTORNEY TOM CARR THE CITY ATTORNEYS OFFICE CONFIRMED THEY HAVE CONDUCTED A PRELIMINARY REVIEW OF THE LEASE, RECOGNIZE THAT SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE IS ADDRESSED IN THE CONTRACT, AND IN GENERAL TERMS AGREE THAT THE LEASE IS ENFORCABLE. FURHTERMORE THEY INDICATED THAT THEIR OFFICE IS PREPARED TO ENFORCE THE LEASE IF DIRECTED BY THE MAYOR. GREGORY NARVER, WHO HAS BEEN ASSIGNED THIS ISSUE, PROVIDED A MINNESOTTA COURT OF APPEALS CASE PERTAINING TO THE TWINS BASEBALL CLUB. IN THIS CASE THE COURT CONCLUDED THAT THE TWINS WERE REQUIRED BY THEIR CONTRACT TO PLAY ALL GAMES ANTICIPATED AT THE TIME OF THE SIGNING OF THE CONTRACT.
THE CITY ATTORNEY ADVISED THAT UNDER THE CITY OF SEATTLE THE MAYOR IS ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENFORCEMENT OF THIS LEASE AND THAT HIS OFFICE WOULD ACT AS DIRECTED BY THE MAYOR.
IT IS THE INTENT OF THE SAVE OUR SONICS AND STORM, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CITIZENS OF SEATTLE AND SUPERSONICS AND STORM FANS THROUGHOUT THE REGION, TO ENSURE CITY OFFICIALS UPHOLD THE PROVISIONS OF THE LEASE.
SOS&S IS EXPLORING ALL OPTIONS TO ENSURE THAT BOTH THE CITY AND PBC ABIDE BY THE TERMS OF THE EXISTING LEASE AND ENCOURAGES ANY AFFECTED BUSINESSES OR INDIVIDUALS TO CONTACT THE MAYORS OFFICE REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
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